Have you considered the Firebird Freedom? I have one that is for all intents my first plane. The actual first one was a Sky Pilot and I would not reccomend it to anyone! I find teh Freedom to be very durable and it has hte benefit of not using fishing line for teh control surfaces. It actually has wire control rods that provide positive movement of teh surfaces in both diretions. This also eliminates the hole in the support rod that sounds like it is a week spot with the other models. The 2 piece wing with carbon center spar is nice too as it allows the plane to break down to a fairly small package.